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It’s not often that you’re able to meet someone that you really respect and would consider to be an amazing role model for the rest of your life. But at the first event of Penn Fashion Week that featured Joshua Schulman, former CEO of Jimmy Choo, I lucked out and found myself sitting next to Tony. He was decked out all in black (per usual, as I would soon find out), and the first thing I was drawn to was his gorgeous Givenchy tote, then the leather panels that ran down the sleeves of his suit jacket, then finally down to his fantastic shoes that had a single bright blue streak through them. One week and a coffee date at Capo Giro later, here’s what I’ve been able to pick from his extremely well qualified brain. And something else to keep in mind while looking through all of this: he’s only 22 years old. Read on and be inspired!

Name: Tony Wang

Major: Bioethics

Year: First-year MBE

CollegeFashionista: What are you wearing today?

Tony Wang: My jacket is from AllSaints, most of the rest of my stuff is from ASOS, and my shoes are limited edition calf hair Doc Martens. I basically only wear black, so I love to play with the different textures of leathers, wool blends, and I love metals.

CF: Where are you from and what is current occupation?

TW: I’m from San Francisco. Right now, I’m a student at the medical schoolhere, but I’m going to be moving to London soon for a new job position that I’m extremely excited about!

CF: What experiences have you had in the past?

TW: I’ve interned since the summer of my junior year in high school and have been working since my sophomore year of undergrad, so it feels weird to not be working! But some of the internships I’ve done in the past include working at Google the summer after my freshman year, then Youtube, then at McKinsey. I also worked as a fashion consultant for BCBG, Gucci, and other companies throughout my years at Wharton. Freshman year I also tried out designing my line (that was carried in a Philly boutique for a season), but I found that the turnaround time didn’t really fit with what I wanted, so I decided to try out a new thing called “blogging” – this was really when fashion blogs started getting big! I created my own site called postfashionism.com (which has now been morphed into luxomancer.com), and a couple months into blogging, I was contacted by the two founders of Gilt Groupe to collaborate with them.

CF: What suggestions do you have for those who may also want to pursue a career in fashion?

TW: When it comes to fashion, even though this is pretty applicable to anything you want to do, it does take a bit of luck — but more importantly, it’s all about good content. As for suggestions, I have two specifically for students at Penn: First, don’t get sucked into the Penn/Wharton culture. This is life beyond college, you don’t necessarily have to follow along with everyone else in getting a job at an investment bank through OCR or something like that. It’s easy to just want what everyone else wants. Second, just do it! I’ve met tons of people with great ideas that are just too scared to execute them. I know it’s cheesy and kind of cliché, but sometimes you just have to get over that fear of failure or rejection and go through with that dream that you have.

How To: Do the monochromatic all-black look to an absolute T. Play around with different textures, stick to minimalistic accessories, and don’t be afraid to throw in something subtly wacky.